01.22.14

Summary: Microsoft is trying to make the Chinese use software and services with back doors (including remote deletion of FOSS by Microsoft), just like in the US and UK

HOW DOES Microsoft save itself from Linux world domination (notably thanks to Android), other than waving some vapourware like Vista 9 (Windows 9)? Well, there’s always Vista 7 to fall back on, as Vista 8 is probably Microsoft’s most hated operating system ever (sales or “licensing” deals have been worse than with Vista). Watch this coverage from Microsoft partners at Ars and Microsoft’s longtime booster Nick Kolakowski, who now works for Slashdot and writes nonsense like: “HP is pushing Windows 7 laptops and desktops as “back by popular demand.” If that doesn’t irritate Microsoft, nothing will.”

“No wonder China is now working on its own operating system for mobile, called COS.”How is that irritating? HP is pushing Windows after numerous Microsoft moles entered HP's management. Sosumi wrote in IRC:” I’d rather have HP offering at the very least an Ubuntu option” (but no, that’s not even an option).

“Here in the UK it’s no better because Microsoft is now taking over schools again, under the pretense (or pretext) of “education”.”Here in the West it’s a different story. In the US, for example, the government assumes that Microsoft, NSA, and back doors are essential. According to [4], there is still a lot of FUD against FOSS and Ken (Helios) responds frustratingly. As Will Hill put it: “There’s more to this than FUD in this corruption, there’s secrecy and legal threats too. The same thing has been carried out everywhere. I wish Ken had paid the $2,000 and broken his agreement to keep it a secret. It’s outrageous and probably against the law to keep public spending like that a secret. People need to break agreements like that and then demand their money back for looking at it. Maybe he should have written a check and immediately had it cancelled.”

Here in the UK it’s no better because Microsoft is now taking over schools again [5], under the pretense (or pretext) of “education”. This is corrupt. A lot of British schools still use Windows XP and there’s no budget for new computers. They should migrate to GNU/Linux within weeks or a few months, but with Microsoft guarding the hen house it’s unlikely to happen. Schools in the UK will continue to have back doors from Microsoft and the NSA, who can always blame bugs and leave them unpatched for over a decade, as Windows XP serves to show, and as reported by the Microsoft press (it took Microsoft more than 12 years to fix a serious Windows bug).

“Post-Vista PC sales have been slowing down, especially lately, because many people are moving to Android phones and tablets, and many people see their existing XP machines that can’t run the latest bloated versions of Windows as “good enough” to run their office software and web browser.” –Ryan FarmerRyan Farmer, a former Microsoft MVP, wrote in our IRC channels: “We need to keep an eye out on what happens to Product Activation after Windows XP goes EOL. If Microsoft stops activating re-installs of Windows XP, we should be sure to beat them over the head with that and remind users of supported versions what will happen to them later. XP is the first version of Windows with Product Activation that is going to go end of life. It has been about 13 years since I first wondered what would happen when XP went EOL. It took a long time for the answer because Microsoft didn’t plan to support Windows XP for even half as long as they did. The Windows “Longhorn” / Vista catastrophe set them back several years, and they ended up having to extend Windows XP’s lifecycle to cover all of the people that refused Vista. Post-Vista PC sales have been slowing down, especially lately, because many people are moving to Android phones and tablets, and many people see their existing XP machines that can’t run the latest bloated versions of Windows as “good enough” to run their office software and web browser.

“Well, there are like millions and millions of people who might have activation difficulties after April. Their computers can’t run anything newer from Microsoft. I suspect they’ll be pissed, if they understand what just happened.”

At the end of the day what we have here is a criminal company that distorts the system, infiltrates the state, and imposes itself on young individuals through the state. Microsoft is not just classical corruption (bribery etc. as we have just demonstrated) but also systemic corruption. █

At that time, the last thing we worried about was spending a couple of hundred dollars on software. I probably had $200 in the spare change jar in the library. We lived in a big house, with a comfortable six figure income. Life was good. A purchase like this wasn’t anything to worry about. It wasn’t the cash outlay that bothered me. It was the fact that a public school was requesting we purchase a specific brand of software.

Having been a Linux user for a number of years, I knew there were other options and I made it a point to talk with someone at the school. How many people with minimal incomes were being asked to shell out this kind of money when other options were available? How many of our tax dollars were being spent on software that was completely unnecessary?

I am no stranger to the Austin Independent School District. Unfortunately, my claim to fame and the events that led to said infamy are well known. It’s a shame that it had to happen the way it did but again…split second decisions and all that…

Microsoft will provide free study materials to around 160,000 primary teachers as part of the “First Class Computing” initiative.

Training will be given as the schools in the UK prepare for the introduction of the new curriculum in September 2014 that will place a lot more emphasis on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects.

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Microsoft's charm offensives against Free/libre software are proving to be rather effective, despite them involving a gross distortion of facts and exploitation of corruptible elements in the corporate media

A British MEP criticises Battistelli and the management of the European Patent Office (EPO) while Baroness Lucy Neville-Rolfe, UK Minister for Intellectual Property, gets closer to Battistelli in a tactless effort to improve relations